The context

This is the online platform of the Gazette Community Building Team. We are a growing group of individuals and institutions – currently centered around Iowa's Creative Corridor – trying to find new solutions to old problems. Specifically, we see the numerous challenges facing our communities, from health care and education to the economy and environment, not as isolated problems, but as integrated, holistic systems requiring a new set of skills focused on creating a better future. We believe a new role has developed to meet the needs of today's society – the community builder.  Community builders are passionate, caring, open facilitators allowing social systems to achieve their own health and vibrancy.

Our basic assumption is that many local social systems (communities) – made up of people, places, institutions, resources, and norms  – have enormous underutilized assets. Skills unused because we don't know each other, projects going unfunded because passionate community members don't know where to look, countless examples of creative collaboration being missed because people rarely meet and talk with one another, enthusiasm wasted because there's no good way to tap into the community system, and on and on. Community builders can bring those latent gifts to the forefront. Community builder are people who seek to understand their community, know the people in it, map the numerous assets it has, nurture the emergence of shared goals, and facilitate their achievement.

Our means

We don't have all the answers. Community building is a wicked problem and we can’t solve it with just one method or another. We need to address the entire community ecosystem with a variety of means. So far we’ve started building  two tools:

The work here is based on the assumption that we must discover and utilize new tools for building community. We believe we should not look first and foremost to government agencies, organizations, new funding, or outside experts for the ideas and capacities to make change happen. Instead, we think the greatest potential for meaningful, caring, and lasting agency comes from within the community itself. We share the fundamental faith that communities can be their own solutions. We're trying to make that vision a reality.

Thanks for reading!

We know this discussion is just getting started, great work has been done around the country already, and this platform is not yet complete, quite right or in the best format. We look forward to getting to know you, hearing your thoughts, feedback and suggestions, and building a stronger community of community builders with you!